Memorandum from Tenovus (DCH 111)
We write as part of response to the draft charities
bill in relation to door to door collections.
We are a registered charity with 55 shops in
England and Wales selling donated goods.
Much of these goods are collected through door
to door collections and we welcome the proposed changes which
will remove the current licensing regime and remove the burden
of having to apply for individual permits from local authorities
for smaller charities.
However we are concerned about the benefits
of deregulation being negated by the proposed requirement to notify
local authorities of the precise day or date of each collection
at least 14 days in advance and no more than six months in advance.
This is, in our view, a disproportionably detailed
notification scheme which will not only cost the charity a great
deal of time and resource to administer but will create a bureaucratic
nightmare for the local authority.
The way our collections for donated goods are
organised needs to be kept flexible so that we can respond to
immediate local needs and the availability of our stock collectors
many of whom are volunteers.
Lack of storage space means that long term planning
of collections is not practicable and to have to give at least
14 days notice will cause stock shortages and damage to the good
causes which the charity supports.
We would support changes in the legislation
that required notification of door to door collection of donated
goods by charities, to local authorities, on a more periodic basis
(eg every six months or annually) and with more general information
regarding timing and frequency. There should not be a requirement
for notification of every individual collection.
We believe that these proposed changes will
also be welcomed by the local authorities. As members of the Association
of Charities Shops, we operate to agreed standards and guidelines
issued by the Association in relation to door to door guidelines
of donated stock. The real menace to the public comes from fraudulent
companies who move into an area and blitz that area with collection
sacks, often misleading the public.
What is proposed in the new legislation would
not stop such collections but what is required is for the ability
of Trading Standards and the Police where applicable, to be able
to act where collections have taken place without prior notification
or where other aspects of the law are believed to have been broken.
June 2004
| 
